The current status of endoscopic thyroidectomy in Korea

We investigate the current status of endoscopic thyroidectomy in Korea. A representative questionnaire was sent to 21 members of the Korean Association of Endocrine Surgeons who were thought to be performing endoscopic thyroidectomy. All the reply letters were collected and analyzed. The response rate was 95%. A total of 1616 cases of endoscopic thyroidectomy were performed from the year 1998 to the year 2005. The patients included 71 men and 1545 women, with a mean age of 36.17 years. The mean operation time was 124.18 minutes and overall length of hospital stay was 4.31 days. Thyroid lobectomy and nodular hyperplasia were the most common procedures and prominent pathologic findings. Axillary approach was the most popular operative approach method. Gas insufflation and skin-lifting gasless method were used in 800 cases and 816 cases, respectively. Postoperative complication rate was 14.2%. Skin paresthesia was the most common complication. Conversion rate to conventional thyroidectomy was 2.2%. Korean experiences show that endoscopic thyroidectomy is a technically safe and feasible procedure. It is considered to be an important surgical tool that can be further progressed and that also has an excellent potential in a management of thyroid neoplasm.